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Dec 16, 2013

Our first christmas tree is not standing in our living room, it is taped to the wall! We don't really have room for a real tree in our living room, but I still wanted to have some sort of nice decoration for our first christmas at home. When we lived in Munich we were always away for christmas so I never bothered with any decoration, but now we're at home and to get into the spirit I thought up an easy way to get a tree into the house.

I used three different kinds of paper, one very thick, almost cardboard like dark green and two shades of thin see-through greens. To give the shape more substance I taped a strip of christmasy masking tape under each line of paper squares. I then used the same masking tape to stick the paper squares to the wall attaching it in a way that the see-through bits always went up and out.

The tree is attached to the wall opposite to our couch island and next to the tv above our entertainment shelves. There are already two presents under our tree, one from me and one from the future husband. I'm very excited for our first christmas at home and so glad that we don't have to be on the autobahn for hours this year. The small christmas decoration in the teapot on the right was made by my mom. It's pretty cool too.

Dec 14, 2013

After my report of all the red carpet action here's the physical goodies I received that night of the European Premiere of The Desolation of Smaug.
Let's start with the autographs:
Since I work at Universal Music I got to order the Soundtrack on day one of the release and was able to take it to the red carpet to sign. It's something different from just a picture, I guess. It got kind of beaten up that night, but I'm still going to find a special place ion our apartment to display it. I'm actually listening to the soundtrack of the movie right now to get me in the mood for watching it this afternoon with my future husband.
Signatures from left to right on top: Aidan Turner(actor: Kili) - Philippa Boyens (writer/producer) - Martin Freeman (actor: Bilbo Baggins)
Bottom left to right: Luke Evans (actor: Bard the Bowman) - Richard Armitage (actor: Thorin Oakenshield)
When the soundtrack got kind of full of signatures I brought out my stack of printed out pictures.
Here I got Andy Serkis the actor of Gollum/Smeagol.
And this signature is from Peter Jackson, my personal Lord of the Rings.
Here's
my Facebook Fan Area gear, thanks again to the future husband for
giving me his place which got me in second row in front of the red
carpet even though I only got there 2 hours ahead. They also gave us smartphone gloves to always update our facebook statuses even in the cold.
And this is very unspectacular my Golden Ticket to the European Premiere of The Hobbit. The only way you can really tell is the date on it, but it brought me oh so much joy. It really still is a mystery to me how I got one, because the fans that got them were interviewed on their costumes and how far away they came from and how long they were waiting and I had nothing like that to show really.
Inside the movie theatre there were champagne and snacks to enjoy before the movie started with all the other lucky people to attend the premiere. There were screens to watch the rest of the action above, the cast and crew standing on the balcony to take pictures and thank the fans. I got to gulp down one glass of champagne and then it was already time to head inside the movie theatre.
And then shock, where the hell is my ticket? I almost dumped out my whole bag before I found it again. That would have been just too bad, losing the ticket right before the movie. When I got in the movie had already started and when I found myself a seat and sat down I felt something underneath me. A box, the one in the picture above. Good thing I didn't squish it under my big butt sitting down. I put it under my seat to look at after the movie.

And this is what I found inside. A snack mix prepared my Air New Zealand with Middle Earth inspired snacks.
In case anyone might ask. No, I didn't sit inside the movie theatre with all the stars. I doubt most of them even watched the movie there, as they all have been to the World Premiere a week ahead and probably seen it already. Also there were about 8 theatres in the cinema that showed the film at the same time. Actually the theatre which I sat in wasn't even full of people, so knowing that I'm not so surprised I got a ticket and a little sad they didn't give out more as there was clearly more room for other waiting fans outside.
I'm really glad the movie was shown in English with subtitles, I would have hated my first impression of the new movie to be with fake German dubbing. German movies are dubbed really well, but I haven't been watching dubbed movies for like 5 years and it takes away so much of the original acting for me.
After the movie was over everyone got a Goodie bag with a mini fugure, a coin, a note pad and a small year calender. Umm... I took like 4 Goodie bags... don't judge me... I like stuff.
These are the four mini figures I got.
And the four coins from the goodie bag were also not enough for me. Walking out of the cinema there were bunches of people gathered around the dragon taking pictures and stuffing their pockets with the coins laying around the bottom of the dragon's treasure. So I stuffed my bags as well. Naturally.
But I'm not greedy, I would love to give away some of my awesome goodies.
One lucky Winner of my Give-Away will receive a Hobbit Notepad, a mini picture calendar (the one with Legolas) and two Golden Coins.
And three other lucky people will receive one Golden Coin each!

Here's what you have to do to enter my Give-Away:
Follow my blog on GFC, Bloglovin, Blog-Connect or Facebook.
Then leave me a comment telling me about your favorite character or scene from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
Leave me you Email-Adress as well in case you win!

This Give-Away will end on December 26th. Good Luck!

Spoiler Alert!
PS: My favorite scene from the movie is the one with Smaug covered in molten gold, so awesome! And I love the scene where Legolas makes fun of Gloins wee lad Gimli, heart melting for LotR fans.

Dec 13, 2013

This Monday I went to the European Premiere of The Hobbit ~ The Desolation of Smaug in Berlin and it was awesome!
I've been a huge fan of The Lord of The Rings ever since the first movie came out. I was 14 years old and immeadiately went to the library to breath in the books before any of the other movies came out. Actually the Eoropean Premiere of The last LotR movie The Return of the King also took place in Berlin and I was there as well. I was sixteen then and now exactly ten years later I felt as though I was that age again seeing all the actors and directors face to face and experiencing the spirit of Tolkiens world through Peter Jacksons masterpieces.

I was actually standing in the second row in front of the red carpet. And this was because I signed up the future husband and I for a bunch of Give-Aways related to this premiere and the future husband won one! It was one place in the "Facebook Fan Area" of the red carpet and he gladly gave it to me, because I'm probably the bigger fan, heh.
I don't know how I ended up in the second row though, because I was only there 2 hours before the whole thing started ( some people showed up 20 hours earlier), I guess I'm just a lucky biatch.
The two girls in front of me were dressed up as some ind of wood elf creatures, so if you watched the live stream of the premiere you probably got to see them a couple of times and me behind them.

While we were waiting (some longer than others) for the premiere to start stewards and stewardesses of Air New Zealand were handing out coffee and hot chocolate to the waiting fans. Smauging hot, for sure. So nice of them, but I didn't really want to give up my perfect spot in case I had to go to the toilet, duh.

The red carpet was lined with different kind of Banners going down all the way to the main street on Potsdamer Platz where the stars of the movie would enter the carpet.

The huge pile of gold with the head of Smaug the dragon peeking out was very impressive. I was really surprised that the Germans thought up a much better looking and more creative stage and background than at the World Premiere in LA. The lady in the middle of the picture above in black and purple was one of the stewardesses of Air New Zealand.

So many fans waiting out in the cold. And the whole time there was a misty drizzle rain going of making the red carpet glisten with water drops.

That dragon... just awesome!

Finally around 6pm there were the first cameracrews and tv hosts on the red carpet.

The first actors and stars were expected around 6:30pm. That didn't keep the people behind me from pressing forward hours earlier though. You kind of felt like a sardine in a can.

These were the hosts of the Berlin premiere. From time to time they interacted with the audience interviewing fans and even giving away tickets to see the movie that night.

And there's Martin Freeman! He went past us so quickly with everyone around me screaming his name, he gestured he would definitely be back later, because as the main star of the movie he had to head to the media first.

We were soon visited by James Nesbitt who plays the dwarf Bofur. His two daughters (behind him and to his right) also played the daughters of Bard the Bowman of Laketown.

He took his time to sign most of the people's pictures, but sadly he missed mine. Oh well.

Next up were Luke Evans, who plays Bard of laketown, and Richard Armitage.

Richard Armitage plays Thorin Oakenshield, King under the Mountain, a character that is often portrayed not very likeable as he always doubts and mistrusts...

... this guy! Bilbo Baggins played by the awesome Martin Freeman. He was being such a sweetheart. After signing my image I thanked him and he replied "Oh no, thank you so much!" And then he winked at me. Remember when I said I felt like I was sixteen again?

What a great guy, really. He took so much time for his fans taking pictures with them and replying to everyone. The girl behind me had drawn a picture of him to sign and he complimented her on that.

Next up were Aidan Turner, who plays the dwarf Kili...

... and
Dean O'Gorman, who plays Fili, Kili's brother.

And here comes Gollum!

I mean Smeagol. I mean Andy Serkis. He did such a great job reviving the creature of Gollum in the first Hobbit movie and apparently he did quite a bit of directing this movie.

An there he is, the master himself, Peter Jackson. Look at how tiny he seems, just like a Hobbit. It was so great to meet the man who created a load of entertainment and art to guide and inspire so many. Thank you, man!

Can you spot another dragon in the middle of this picture above? Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Smaug the dragon and the Necromancer was so close and yet so far this whole time.

It was too bad he didn't come our direction to sign autographs. I would have really liked to thank him up close.

It is over it seems, all the stars are across the carpet, hanging out by the photographers and tv people. What now?
Well it seems as luck is again on our side, because:

I got a Golden Ticket!
Haha, it really felt lkike that. After all the stars were interviewed the hosts went down the lines of fans to hand out tickets to see the mvie that night again. and luck had it that right then I was in the firt row because the costumed lady in front of me had won such a ticket. It's a mystery to me why I got one, but it just so happens that the social media lady handed me a ticket. I think maybe it was because I was the only one not desperately begging to get one. (The guy next to me offered his girlfriend to make out with the host for him to get a ticket, fucking disgusting.)

Anyways. I got the ticket, ran around the Potsdamer Platz to get to the entrance of the red carpet, pranced down the red carpet. OmfG. So awesome! Friends of mine had been standing on the other side of the carpet the whole time, so I ran up to them to high five them. I prance up the stairs to the dragon. Almost fell over my own feet going up those stairs. Took a bunch of selfies in front of the dragon. You have to know that across that dragon were tons of photographers and media people, very intimidating to be in front of those. But I continued to take my selfies, haha.

I then got closer to the dragon and saw that there were actual coins
lying around the bottom of the painted goldpile. I grabbed a handful and
pranced back to my friends to hand them the coins.

Then I skipped back to the dragon to take some more selfies, this time a little more calmed down. I was still so excited and really couldn't believe it still. Me on the red carpet, where only minutes before stars like Martin Freeman and Orlando Bloom walked.

So I went into the cinema to take off my coat and relax a little before the movie starts when this guy walks in. My legs were goo again and I clutched my camera feeling like a round up rabbit mentally preparing myself to ask for a picture whe a security guard said: "You need to go downstairs now." And I'm like yeah, yeah. And he's like: "Now!"
Too bad, but oh well. maybe another time. Heh. Like this will ever happen again. But it was still fucking awesome! I'm still excited for me to have experienced this.

Tomorrow I'll write up all the good stuff that happened inside the cinema. And there will also be a Give-Away, so stay tuned!
Happy Hobbit Weekend!

Dec 2, 2013

For our Thanksgiving Get Together I wanted to decorate our table as well, so I took the Christmas style masking tape I had lying around for a while and taped it all over our couch table!
The table was bought second hand and has a few scratches on it. With the masking tape I covered all of those scratches and that's how the different angles and shape happened, because I always wanted to cover more than one scratch with one line of tape.
I'm pretty satisfied with the result and all of our Thanksgiving guests loved it.
The red and green went very well with our orange and red napkins and our awesome handmade Turkey and the only christmasy tape was the reindeer one, so it wasn't too far from the theme of the night. I'm interested to know how well it'll clean after a while and how long it'll stick to the table. I wanted to keep it on until New Years at least. And after that I'll figure out something permanent to do with it.

Anyways, forgot to take before pictures as usual, but here's our Thanksgiving Leftovers:
And my Leftover Breakfast plate. Yums! It was all still great the next day as well. We had a corn chowder, sweet potatoe mash, a potatoe casserole, a pumpkin quiche and 4 different kind of duck dishes.

The day after was pretty chill. The only thing I accomplished to do were these crochet snowflakes. I don't know what to do with them yet, but I will let you know! Happy Holidays!
This post will be part of Nina's Upcycling Tuesday and the Creadienstag.